Crystal Hotel Paris

... a ton of baggage. I thought I was traveling light, but without wheels it gets heavy after a while. Luckily Schipol airport has free baggage carts. My train from Amsterdam to Paris leaves at 12:26 so I have plenty of time to get my bearings. The one thing that really caught my eye was the smoking area. For the whole huge airport it’s one tiny booth which the others in the booth tell me they keep moving around and not telling anyone.
Paris, Īle-de-France, France fec

... yogurt she loves. I don't know why, but her opinion. We also got some orange juice, Fizz fruits rouges (another favorite from last summer), cornichons, and President butter from the Franprix. For dinner we got some Provencal pasta sauce, and trois fromages Ravioli.

We bought our groceries and stopped outside to gulp down some orange juice. We were so thirsty from the walking we had done. Believe me, it was A LOT of ...

... Kallie is staring and notices a French man swiping his hand across his throat gesturing 'done'. After a few times of this kallie starts to laugh and we decide maybe we should get off the train... Maybe the conductor just said something in frenh that made all of these people get of and stand on the platform... Maybe it's not such a popular station and thy just know how to speak the language. Now, you would think tyt this would dawn on us when EVERYONE gets ...

... bunch of people that took over. In the end it was not officially completed till 1914 and not formally dedicated till 1919. When we got off the metro we had to walk up a long street that ascended on about a 30 degree angle and was littered in souvenir shops for as far as the eye can see. When we got to the foot of the Basilique we were confronted by some Africans that were asking us to put out our finger and holding some thread that they ...

... 1st floor. We sat and let our heartrates slow down, and enjoyed the view before we continued. We should have rested more and explored the first floor. Instead I think we pretty much gave a quick glance around and then climbed the second set of stairs. I thought I might have some medical issues when we reached the top. We think there are more steps on the second set than the first.. which I thought ...

... giant 320 meter high tower is next to us. I like tell her to look to the left and its right there. Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny. But we were finally there! It was so exciting. I enjoyed a delicious crepe, obviously and she ate a nasty looking hot dog. The French, well all of Europe for that matter don't really get hot dogs. After that we were so dead, we didn't want to wait in line to go up, and we headed on a bus to Gare de Lyon and came back to the Vich.

... walk able, but at the same time exhausting. We started at the Arc de Triomphe where we commented on how it looks bigger in person, how busy the traffic that circles it is (Ģ read somewhere it's actually the biggest OR busiest traffic junction in the world - not sure which) and how beautiful the day was. From there we walked to one of Paris' typically leafy boulevards to the Eiffel Tower. We commented on how the tower really does look cool up close ...

... I had the pate w/mushrooms followed by one of my best dishes on this trip: Cassoulet. This is a hearty stew of beans, vegetables, sausage, gizzards, and duck. I couldn't eat all of it and I didn't think to ask to take the rest back to the apartment (do the French allow doggie bags?). Some in the group had dessert while Louisa and I had a Ricard, a licorice flavored liqueur. 50€. Excellent, excellent ...

... But I shouldn't complain -- they had a bed for me and I didn't have to go searching. But an American I met at Gare D'Nord (while wearing my Iraqi Coalition shirt, 'natch) said he had a room to himself at a budget hotel for 20. So... grrr. After getting signed up at the Woodstock I realized that Gare D'Nord was walkable and went on my merry way, snapping photos of the building facades every which way. What an awesome city. This was my second time in Paris and ...

Arrive 4/18, two nights in Paris. Stayed in a nice hotel in the Latin Quarter, ate some great crepes with Nutella, took an evening bicycle tour of the city that ended with an hour-long boat ride down the Seine. Paris is a very nice city, but there are other places I would go back to before devoting a trip to it. Maybe I was just tired from traveling. All in all, we had a great time here.